Posted on 01/31/2006 11:43:57 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
New York, NEW YORK
"World News Tonight" anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt left Germany Tuesday on a military plane bound for the United States, where they will receive further treatment for their injuries from a bomb blast in Iraq.
A C-17 medical evacuation plane took off from the U.S. base at Ramstein on Tuesday afternoon carrying the two journalists and 28 U.S. service personnel, including several others hurt in Iraq.
Woodruff was showing signs of improvement Monday as a reeling ABC News division was coming to grips with what his injuries mean for the future of the recently revamped newscast and its ratings prospects.
Woodruff, seriously hurt Sunday by a roadside bomb in Iraq along with Vogt, briefly opened his eyes Monday and responded to stimuli to his hands and feet, the network said.
"He's a strong guy and he's going to make it," his brother, David, told ABC's "World News Tonight" from outside the hospital. "I think he's going to do well."
The plane carrying Woodruff and Vogt was bound for Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. The two injured journalists are to be taken to the brain injury center of the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
Members of the 86th Air Medical Evacuation Squadron, based in Ramstein, would tend the patients in the air, U.S. military spokeswoman Erin Zagursky said. Relatives of the men were traveling home on commercial flights, she said.
There was no fresh word on the journalists' condition Tuesday.
The two men were brought to the Ramstein Air Base airport in a gray bus and carried onto the plane on stretchers. Both were wrapped in blankets and attached to life-support machines.
Col. Bryan Gamble, the commander of the hospital, described Bob Woodruff and Vogt as "very seriously injured, but stable," with injuries "typical of victims of improvised explosive devices."
Vogt was filming a report with Bob Woodruff and both were standing in the open hatch of an Iraqi military vehicle Sunday when the bomb exploded.
David Woodruff said his brother fell down the hatch after the blast, opened his eyes and asked if he was alive.
"At that point he started to feel the pain, I think, and he used some colorful language and said, 'This hurts a lot.' And then he became unconscious," he told "Good Morning America."
Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas have been "World News Tonight" co- anchors for only a month, new on-air standard-bearers for a news organization severely shaken by the cancer death of Peter Jennings last August.
They were appointed to duties that included an afternoon Webcast, live West Coast feeds of the evening news and frequent travel to story locations, a job Westin said was too big for just one person. Westin remains committed to his strategy for the newscast, a spokesman said.
"We're just 24 hours from this tragic incident," spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said. "We're figuring out exactly what we're going to do. And when we're ready to say exactly what that is, we'll be letting everyone know."
With Woodruff relatively little-known to the newswatching public, some analysts suggest viewers curious about the story could provide a short-term boost to a broadcast second in the ratings to NBC's "Nightly News."
"I have no idea if it will be a lasting difference," said Jim Murphy, who recently stepped down as executive producer of the "CBS Evening News." "This doesn't happen much in American journalism, that a big star gets hurt like this. I just hope he's going to be well."
While NBC continues to dominate the evening-news ratings, the Vargas- Woodruff team was too new to tell if viewers would embrace them. CBS is still waiting to see whether Katie Couric is interested in jumping to its broadcast; her potential impact adds more mystery to the competition.
ABC's Westin was taking a long-term view, hoping viewers would appreciate jet-setting anchors and betting that their experiences now would pay big dividends in 10 or 15 years, said Andrew Tyndall, a consultant who studies the broadcast news divisions.
"This is someone who cares about what the future of his organization will look like and who will represent it," Tyndall said. "He can't go back on this plan."
Experts say it's too early to predict Woodruff's future as a news anchor.
David Woodruff's credited his brother's immediate care after the blast with saving his life. If Woodruff hadn't been wearing body armor, he likely would have been killed, said Gamble, commander of the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.
"Bob obviously arrived here in fairly serious condition but he stabilized very well here," David Woodruff told ABC News. "Every hour that's gone by he's shown improvement or hasn't gotten any worse and they say that's good news."
It wasn't immediately clear whether shrapnel had penetrated Woodruff's brain or if he was suffering from a concussive injury, said former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, a Woodruff family friend.
"The doctors had told them once they arrived that the brain swelling had gone down. In Bob's case, that had been a big concern. Yesterday they had to operate and remove part of the skull cap
With traumatic brain injuries, doctors can't really tell what is going to happen during the first 24 or 48 hours, said Dr. Maurizio Miglietta, chief of surgical critical care at the New York University Medical Center/Bellevue.
"Sometimes it takes days or weeks to figure out what the long-term consequences are going to be," Miglietta said.
Woodruff, 44, and Vogt, a 46-year-old award-winning cameraman, were embedded with the 4th Infantry Division and traveling in a convoy with U.S. and Iraqi troops near Taji, about 12 miles north of Baghdad when the device exploded. An Iraqi solder also was hurt.
Westin, speaking Monday on "Good Morning America," said the risks news personnel face are assessed every day in a country where there were 221 attacks by explosive devices last week alone. But it's important to cover the news, he said.
"We all know there are substantial risks," Westin said. "At the same time, what we do is report the news. We report the stories such as Iraq, and it's a dilemma we struggle with all along because frankly, we don't get to report as much in Iraq as we'd like to because of security."
According to Reporters Without Borders, 79 journalists, most of them Iraqi, have been killed in Iraq since March 2003. The agency lists Baghdad and Mosul as being the two most dangerous cities to report from.
The number of wounded is unknown, but 35 journalists have been kidnapped and two are currently missing.
Thanks for the update.
Hope our FR prayer warriors can send up a few good prayers for these two men.
Lord, please return both Bob and Doug to full health and full mental capacity. Even if it takes weeks and months, Lord, please return them whole and healed to their families and all those who love them. Amen.
Would you please say a prayer for the faceless, nameless, ordinary soldiers who don't make millions of their Iraqi "trip". Who you cannot see on the TV screen every day, who are just sacrifice themselves for us, who are just die and suffer in quite. Are they less human than a TV star? Are they hurt less?
Are you kidding? I, and all the Freeper prayer warriors, offer thousands of prayers every day for all those who serve in the military.
I don't think you know who you're talking to here.
Go to the FReeper Canteen once and see how much we pray for and think of our men and women "over there" and in all the military hospitals.
Does this mean we don't have any prayers left over for anyone else?
Thank God, prayers are free, and there are always plenty to go around here.
How is it that Woodruff merits a free flight back on a military evac flight? "Ordinary" American citizens are not afforded this opportunity. Whenever I am abroad I have to carry enough insurance to cover the cost of a commercial medical evacuation back to the U.S. if it becomes necessary. I don't understand how he got free mediacal care at Landstuhl courtesy of the military either. Does anyone know?
My prayers going up for Bob Woodruff, Doug Vogt and their family. God's healing for Bob and Doug...God's comfort for all who worry for them.
Blessings,
trussell
If you want on/off my prayer ping list, please let me know. All requests happily honored.
Yes, prayers go out to these two journalists and to their families. But especially prayers to/for the men and women who are fighting over there who have been injured or killed during this war!
Continued prayers for the recovery of Woodruff and Vogt, but especially for our service men and women who often go unnamed in the media. Our hearts are joined to theirs.
I join in your prayer for both of them and their loved ones!
Prayers are offered this evening, that both Mr. Woodruff and Mr. Vogt will fully recover from their wounds.
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